The Russian Doping Scandal: How Did We Get Here?

What happened leading up to WADA’s report on Monday, and what is likely to happen next.

Ekaterina Poistogova (left) and Mariya Savinova celebrate after winning the 800-meter bronze and gold medals, respectively, at the 2012 Olympics. The two athletes are among those recommended to receive lifetime bans for doping in a World Anti-Doping Agency report. Giancarlo Colombo/PhotoRun

The revelation of systematic, officially abetted use of performance-enhancing drugs by Russian athletes is the largest doping scandal in track and field in years. The case has the potential to affect the sport in basic ways, including the integrity of track and field’s international governing body, Russia’s participation in the Olympics, unveiling of similar doping in other countries, and public faith in the marquee sport at next year’s Olympics.

Here’s a guide to what has transpired, and why, and likely subsequent developments.

The Case Against RussiaOn Monday, an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency released a 323-page report on doping in Russian track and field. The commission was headed by the highly respected Dick Pound, the founding president of WADA, which oversees the anti-doping movement in Olympic sports throughout the world.

The report’s main takeaways:

Coaches, officials in the Russian track and field federation, officials in Russia’s anti-doping agency, and others, organized efforts “to promote doping and make it possible for such efforts to be successful, including the cover-up of certain positive cases of doping.”

The International Association of Athletics Federations and the Russian federation did not take action on doping cases, leading to athletes who should have been banned competing in and medaling at the 2012 Olympics.

More than 1,400 positive drug-test results were destroyed, some at an unaccredited lab, to keep them from WADA.

State security services likely participated and other evidence revealed “that the federal government was not only complicit in the collusion, but that it was effectively a state-sponsored regime.”

How the WADA Report Came to BeIn December 2014, the German television station ARD aired documentaries on doping in Russian track and field. The documentaries made the points that were covered in greater detail in Monday’s WADA report: that those who were responsible for keeping the sport clean in Russia were, instead, providing drugs and helping athletes either avoid testing positive for drugs or cover up positive tests, and that doping is rampant. (The banned discus thrower Yevgeniya Pecherina estimated that 99 percent of the athletes on the Russian national track and field team are doping.)

The first documentary included footage, taken with a hidden cell phone camera, of Olympic and IAAF World Championships 800-meter champion Mariya Savinova speaking openly about her doping practices. Savinova has never been banned for doping.

A later documentary reported that a whistleblower who was a former member of the IAAF’s Medical and Anti-Doping Commission had provided evidence that as many as 150 athletes recorded suspicious blood values from 2006 to 2008, but the IAAF did not properly follow up.

The reporter behind the documentaries, Hajo Seppelt, produced similar work on doping in Kenya in 2012. Partially as a result of Seppelt’s reporting, the World Marathon Majors began contributing money to help the IAAF to increase the frequency of its testing in Kenya and other countries that haven’t traditionally been able to afford their own anti-doping programs. Seppelt’s reputation and the quality of materials he presented meant that the documentaries had to be taken seriously.

On December 16, WADA named an independent commission to investigate the allegations made in the documentaries. Its scope of work was detailed in January: “to conduct an independent investigation into doping practices; corrupt practices around sample collection and results management; and, other ineffective administration of anti-doping processes that implicate Russia, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, and other members of athletes’ entourages; as well as, the accredited laboratory based in Moscow and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).”

In August 2015, ARD and the British newspaper the Sunday Times teamed to produce a new doping report, based on a database of athletes’ blood values maintained by the IAAF. According to the report, between 2001 and 2012, some 146 Olympic and world championships medalists in running and walking events 800 meters and longer had blood test results that were grounds for suspicion of performance-enhancing drug use. Fifty-five of those said to have suspicious blood results were gold medalists. More than 80 of the suspicious medals were won by Russians, and 18 were won by Kenyans.

The WADA commission’s scope of work was subsequently expanded to investigate the claims made in that report. The WADA report released on Monday does not address those claims, but will be the subject of a separate report. A date for that report’s release was not stated on Monday.

Is Russia Unique? WADA’s report described the situation in Russia as “a deeply rooted culture of cheating,” in which “the acceptance of cheating at all levels is widespread and of long standing,” indicative of “a fundamentally flawed mindset that is deeply ingrained in all levels of Russian athletics.”

“It soaks through the whole system,” Eugen Dimant, a postdoctoral researcher in the philosophy, politics, and economics program and the Behavioral Ethics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, told Runner’s World in an email. “The case is to some degree reminiscent of the darkest days of systemic doping that we experienced in the former East Germany. Sports is an important part of Russia’s culture and their identity. This also has a geopolitical side to it, especially in light of the current political and economic occurrences and muscle flexing with Western countries.”

WADA data on all sports support the idea that doping is endemic in Russia. In drug tests conducted at WADA-accredited labs in 2013, the country with the greatest number of positive tests for banned substances was Russia.

“Speaking in economic terms, the justification for such practices comes from a prisoner’s dilemma type of situation: no nation wants to fall behind and assumes other nations do the same,” Dimant said.

At the same time, it’s important to remember that doping isn’t a problem only in Russia. When the 2013 WADA test data are broken down by sport, Turkey, not Russia, produced the most positive tests for banned substances. Russia was second and the United States was tied for fifth.

Speaking about countries where widespread doping among track and field athletes is rumored, including Jamaica and Kenya, Dimant said, “Some of these countries have the same problem as Russia: a lack of out-of-competition testing and the ability to cover up cases if enough money is paid to the right people.”

How This Scandal Compares to Cycling’s Doping IssuesGiven the official involvement detailed in the WADA report, the doping problem in track and field could be worse than that in cycling during the Lance Armstrong era.

“This is a scandal on a global scale, since not only athletes are involved, as was the case for the doping scandals involving [Canadian sprinter] Ben Johnson or Armstrong, [Jans] Ullrich, etc. in cycling,” Dimant said. “Instead, it involves athletes, doctors, trainers, highly ranked officials, etc. Even its intelligence service, the FSB, was allegedly involved.”

The Russian scandal also differs from previous cases of corruption in track and field and other sports, such as soccer, because of accusations that high-level IAAF officials accepted bribes to cover up positive drug tests. The WADA report contends that runners who medaled at the 2012 Olympics should instead have been serving bans.

What Now? Monday’s report contained several recommendations for addressing the commission’s findings. Some, such as lifetime competitive bans for five Russian athletes, are within WADA’s jurisdiction. Others will require action by organizations beyond WADA.

On Tuesday, WADA announced that it already acted on one of the report’s key recommendations: provisionally suspending the accreditation of the Moscow Antidoping Center. A WADA committee will decide the long-term status of the facility. In the meantime, samples that would have been tested at the center will be shipped to other WADA-accredited labs.

The commission called for removing Grigory Rodchenkov as head of Russia’s anti-doping lab. He resigned on Tuesday.

Another key recommendation was that the IAAF suspend the Russian federation; doing so could lead to banning Russia's track and field team at next year’s Olympics. The IAAF Council, led by new president Sebastian Coe, will meet on Friday to decide whether to provisionally suspend the Russian federation. Russian athletes would not be allowed to compete in international meets while any suspension is in effect. A more permanent suspension, with terms for reinstatement, might be issued during an already scheduled IAAF governing body meeting at the end of November. Russia will have the opportunity to appeal any suspension.

Monday’s report focused on doping in Russia. But it contained hints that more revelations are to come, perhaps by the end of the year. The commission “has turned over considerable data and information to Interpol that tends to demonstrate criminal conduct on the part of certain individuals and organizations,” the report states. Elsewhere, the report notes “corruption and bribery practices at the highest levels of international athletics.” Translation: Lamine Diack, who was the head of the IAAF from 1999 to August 2015, is among those likely to face criminal charges for his role in covering up doping cases.

The commission also noted that the focus of its report should not be interpreted to mean that doping is a problem only in Russia. In a press conference following the report’s release, Pound said Monday’s revelations were “the tip of the iceberg” and mentioned Kenya, where collusion among runners, coaches, managers, and federation officials to hide doping has been reported by reputable sources. At the least, the commission is charged with producing a report on the allegations made in August.

What happens outside of official channels might be the most important response to the scandal. If running fans and the general public believe that doping is so widespread that all elite performances are suspect, track and field will continue its slide from relevance.

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